'Clean room' to be ND showplace

March 16, 2009|By MARGARET FOSMOE Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Construction dust is flying these days in a cavernous space on the ground floor of the new engineering building under construction at the University of Notre Dame, but soon it will be the most immaculate spot on campus. The lobby of Stinson-Remick Hall will provide a literal window for students and visitors to see inside the facility's centerpiece: an 8,000-square-foot semiconductor processing and device fabrication clean room. In plain view through a wall of plate glass in the lobby, the room is where some of the university's most sensitive and cutting-edge nanotechnology research will occur. The "clean room" gets its name from the fact that dust and other airborne particles will be carefully screened by a super-filtered air flow system, preventing microscopic bits from entering and disturbing delicate research work. Temperature and humidity also will be carefully controlled. Researchers will enter through an auxiliary space, where they will don particle-free body suits, shoe and head covers, and eye goggles required in the clean room. The room will provide space for up to 50 or so researchers at a time. Similar clean rooms already exist at other Midwestern research universities, including Purdue, Michigan and Illinois, but this is the first such space at Notre Dame. "This is going to bring people to South Bend, having a facility like this," said Alan Seabaugh, a Notre Dame electrical engineering professor and technical director of the Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery (MIND). The clean room will be available for use by researchers from other universities and, in some cases, perhaps to businesses. Those details still have to be worked out. The $69.4 million, 161,000-square-foot building also will house other research laboratories, the Notre Dame Energy Center and an undergraduate interdisciplinary learning center. Most of the building is constructed of heavy concrete, to reduce the chance of tiny vibrations impacting experiments. The facility, under construction north of the Hesburgh Center on Notre Dame Avenue, is scheduled to open in January 2010. Notre Dame is looking to double the number of its nanotech researchers and support staff, from about 100 now to 200 or more, and the new building will help. "We are looking to grow this significantly," Seabaugh said. Staff writer Margaret Fosmoe: mfosmoe@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6329